Advancing the Selection of Neurodevelopmental Measures in Epidemiological Studies of Environmental Chemical Exposure and Health Effects

With research suggesting increasing incidence of pediatric neurodevelopmental disorders, questions regarding etiology continue to be raised. Neurodevelopmental function tests have been used in epidemiology studies to evaluate relationships between environmental chemical exposures and neurodevelopmental deficits. Limitations of currently used tests and difficulties with their interpretation have been described, but a comprehensive critical examination of tests commonly used in studies of environmental chemicals and pediatric neurodevelopmental disorders has not been conducted. We provide here a listing and critical evaluation of commonly used neurodevelopmental tests in studies exploring effects from chemical exposures and recommend measures that are not often used, but should be considered. We also discuss important considerations in selecting appropriate tests and provide a case study by reviewing the literature on polychlorinated biphenyls

Size Doesn't Matter: Towards a More Inclusive Philosophy of Biology

notes: As the primary author, O’Malley drafted the paper, and gathered and analysed data (scientific papers and talks). Conceptual analysis was conducted by both authors.publication-status: Publishedtypes: ArticlePhilosophers of biology, along with everyone else, generally perceive life to fall into two broad categories, the microbes and macrobes, and then pay most of their attention to the latter. ‘Macrobe’ is the word we propose for larger life forms, and we use it as part of an argument for microbial equality. We suggest that taking more notice of microbes – the dominant life form on the planet, both now and throughout evolutionary history – will transform some of the philosophy of biology’s standard ideas on ontology, evolution, taxonomy and biodiversity. We set out a number of recent developments in microbiology – including biofilm formation, chemotaxis, quorum sensing and gene transfer – that highlight microbial capacities for cooperation and communication and break down conventional thinking that microbes are solely or primarily single-celled organisms. These insights also bring new perspectives to the levels of selection debate, as well as to discussions of the evolution and nature of multicellularity, and to neo-Darwinian understandings of evolutionary mechanisms. We show how these revisions lead to further complications for microbial classification and the philosophies of systematics and biodiversity. Incorporating microbial insights into the philosophy of biology will challenge many of its assumptions, but also give greater scope and depth to its investigations

Vibrational Analysis of Bat-Ball Collision

The purpose of this project is to develop a model of a bat-ball collision to predict the outgoing velocity of the ball and how it varies as the point of impact along the bat changes. The method we propose is to subtract the kinematic losses due to vibration from the existing rigid body model for bat ball collisions. Our model accounts for the mechanism by which kinetic energy is imparted to the ball and the mechanism by which vibrational energy is imparted to the bat because naturally it deforms after impact. We were able to determine that a “sweet spot” of a bat is the location where outgoing ball velocity is at a maximum due to minimal kinetic losses due to vibration. This sweet spot is different than predicted by the rigid body model,it is not located at any of the nodes of vibration

Analysis of the Aquaculture Market in the Costa Rican Metropolitan Area

Our team aimed to assess and analyze the urban market for aquaculture products since these products were not well-commercialized in the metropolitan area of Costa Rica. We accomplished this by conducting surveys of aquaculture producers, wholesalers, market managers and consumers of fish products. Our main deliverables included data describing the volumes and prices of fish sold, demand for fish species, locations of purchase, consumer demographics and current advertisement techniques as well as recommendations for developing the commercialization of aquaculture products

The Innate Lymphoid System Is a Critical Player in the Manifestation of Mucoinflammatory Airway Disease in Mice

Innate lymphoid and adaptive immune cells are known to regulate epithelial responses, including mucous cell metaplasia (MCM), but their roles in mucoinflammatory airway diseases, such as cystic fibrosis, remain unknown. transgenic (-Tg) mice, which recapitulate cystic fibrosis-like mucoinflammatory airway disease, deficient in innate lymphoid ( knockout mice [ ]), adaptive immune ( knockout mice [ ]), or both systems ( / ), were employed to investigate their respective contributions in the pathogenesis of mucoinflammatory airway disease. As previously reported, immunocompetent Tg juveniles exhibited spontaneous neonatal bacterial infections with robust mucoinflammatory features, including elevated expression of -associated markers accompanied by MCM, elevated MUC5B expression, and airway mucus obstruction. The bacterial burden was increased in Tg juveniles but returned to significantly lower levels in / /Tg juveniles. Mechanistically, this improvement reflected reduced production of adaptive immunity-derived IL-10 and, in turn, increased activation of macrophages. Although all the mucoinflammatory features were comparable between the immunocompetent Tg and /Tg juveniles, the /Tg and / /Tg juveniles exhibited suppressed expression levels of markers, diminished MCM, suppressed MUC5B expression, and reduced mucus obstruction. Collectively, these data indicate that, in the context of airway mucus obstruction, the adaptive immune system suppresses antibacterial macrophage activation, whereas the innate lymphoid system contributes to MCM, mucin production, and mucus obstruction